If you like something…

Author Notes: There are so many pumpkin cake recipes out there and not enough sweet potato ones and I adore sweet potatoes. There is a wonderful recipe by Regan Daley that this is heavily adapted and inspired by. I'm also on a huge bourbon kick right now (not drinking, just using in recipes!) - bourbon ice cream, bourbon icing, slipping bourbon into this cake...it's one of the best ingredients to use in savory or sweet fall recipes right now. I also liked the idea of using buttermilk (one of my other favorite ingredients) in this cake, to yield a moist, fluffy and tender crumb, which is precisely what it does. This cake is moist and flavorful - with some great spices but they don't overshadow the real star of the cake, which is the sweet potatoes. The bourbon glaze soaks into the cake and it almost tastes like bread pudding, and it is the pretty bow that ties up the package that is this cake. This is the perfect cake to make for Thanksgiving, especially if you have guests who aren't so crazy about the standard pumpkin or apple pies. Enjoy! —tiptoesinthekitchen

Serves 10-12

Sweet Potato Buttermilk Bundt Cake

2 sticks of unsalted butter (softened)

2 1/4cups all-purpose flour

2teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4teaspoon ground ginger

1teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2teaspoon salt

2 medium sweet potatoes (cooked, skinned and mashed) - should be about a cup and 1/2

3/4cup buttermilk

1/3cup bourbon

1teaspoon vanilla

3 large eggs

1 1/4cups light brown sugar

1/2cup chopped pecans

a few pecan halves for decoration (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour a bundt pan. Microwave the sweet potatoes on high for about 8 minutes (until they are steamed and tender). Peel the skin from them and mash them in a bowl.

Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and spices all together in a medium bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine.

In a separate large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar and gradually (one by one) add the eggs.

Measure out the buttermilk and add the vanilla and bourbon to it. Mix in the sweet potatoes in the batter until they are evenly incorporated. Alternate in 3 or 4 batches, slowly adding the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the bundt pan and drop on the counter a couple times to prevent air bubbles. Bake for 35-40 minutes (depending on your oven and when a cake tester comes out clean).

Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, flip it over onto a plate or cake stand and pour the glaze on top. Decorate with pecan halves.

Bourbon Brown Sugar Glaze

3tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4cup heavy cream

1tablespoon bourbon

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and sugar on medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream for about 3 more minutes. Remove from heat and mix in the bourbon.

I'm happy to report that I made this cake yesterday as I had extra buttermilk and sweet potatoes that I had to use. I stumbled across the recipe using my handy-dandy Handpick food app that helps reduce food waste by suggesting recipes using ingredients you already have on hand. My husband gave this cake a "10 or 11" out of a 1-to-10 scale. I bake a lot. For sure, I'd bake this again. A wonderful fall dessert to unveil at a dinner. It's also most definitely worthy for Thanksgiving. I ended up using 5 small to medium sweet potatoes. The brown sugar bourbon glaze is wickedly delicious.

This sounds like heaven! A significant number of my friends use no alcohol at all, so I'm thinking of possible substitutions for the bourbon. I like the idea of orange juice, but I'm thinking also of some kind of caramel along with it. Perhaps a tiny bit of molasses or sorghum in the batter, and some caramelized sugar in the glaze. In fact, you could possibly make it praliné with the pecans. I'd use some orange extract, and some vanilla too. I once had candied yams at a Thanksgiving dinner that were treated this way, but IMO way too sweet for an entree side dish.é

I was gonna submit a very similar recipe I adapted from Dorothy Dalquist's Sweet-Potato Bourbon Bundt Cake (via Martha Stewart) but ya beat me to it :) In my rendition of the cake I omit pumpkin spice, use only cinnamon and add the zest of one large orange. I sub fresh orange juice for half the bourbon in the cake batter and increase the amount of bourbon in the glaze to 1/4 cup...so it's boozy enough! Glad to see this recipe on Food52- it's a good one- I'm making it this year for my family's "Southern Soul Food Thanksgiving Potluck"! Yum! Hope you make it to the finals, you have my vote.

Thank you so much for the kind words and support! The addition of orange zest and juice sound great too! I hope your Southern Soul Food Thanksgiving goes well, it sounds like a lot of fun - what else are you having?